they will attack any convoy of provifions that falls in their way; and my landlord affures me, that as foon as they come into a town, they immediately lay clofe fiege to the pantry and kitchen, which they commonly take by storm, and never give any quarter; as alfo, that they are excellent miners, in working their way into the cellar.

I little imagined that I should have met with my old univerfity acquaintance Jack Five Bar in this part of the country, as I could not but think we had been at least two hundred miles afunder. Indeed I did not know him at his firft accofting me, as he approached flowly to me with a diftantly familiar air, and a fliding bow forward, and a "Sir, your most humble fervant," instead of fpringing upon me like a greyhound, and clapping me on the fhoulder like a bailiff, fqueezing my four fingers in his rough palm, like a nut-cracker, and then whirling my arm to and fro, like the handle of a great pump, with a blunt "How doft do?—I am glad to fee thee" and an hearty Damme at the beginning and end of it. Jack, you must know, by being a militia captain, is become a fine gentleman; fo fine a one, indeed, that he affects to defpife what he never knew, and afked me, if I had not, as well as himself, forgot all my Greek.

It is true, that my friend Jack (I beg his honour's pardon, I fhould fay captain) has had the advantage of an Oxford edu cation; and therefore it is not wonderful, that he has been worked, kneaded, mould ed, fine-drawn, and polished into a better kind of pipe-makers clay than the clods of which fome of his brother officers were compofed. Yet thefe, I found, had in fome measure caft their flough, and put on the martial gentility with the drefs: fuch are the furprizing effects of a red coat, that it immediately dubs a man a gentleman; as, for inftance, every private man in his majelly's foot-guards is dignified with the tide of gentleman-foldier.

To the honour of the militia be it fpoken, their officers have made noble advances in the military arts, and are become as great proficients in them as any of the regulars; I mean thofe arts particularly which will render them an ornament to their country in the time of peace. then, with refpect to drefs and politenefs of behaviour. The red coat, the cockade, the fhoulder-knot, and. the word, have metamorphofed our pain country 'fquires into as arrant beaus as any on the parade.

First

The short je ki, friped waistcoat, leather breeches, and livery of the hunt, are exchanged for an elegant laced uniform; the bob-wig has fprouted to a queue; the boots are caft off for filk stockings and turned pumps; and the long whip has given place to a gold-hilted fword, with a flaming fword-knot. They have reconciled themfelves to ruffles, and can make a bow, and come into a room with a good grace. With these accomplishments, our bumkins have been enabled to fhine at country affemblies; though it must be confeffed that these grown gentlemen ftand fomewhat in need of Mr. Duke's inftructions. Some of them have alfo carried their politenefs fo far as to decide a point of honour with their fwords; and at the laft town I paffed through, I was told, there had been a duel between a militia officer and the furgeon of the place, when the former being pricked in the fword-arm, his antagonist directly pulled out his falvebox, and kindly dreffed the wound upon the field of battle.

Another neceffary qualification of a foldier is, curfing and fwearing; in which exercife, I affure you, our militia gentry are very expert. It is true, they had had fome practice in it before they left their native fields, but were not difciplined in difcharging their oaths with right military grace. A common fellow may fwear indeed like a trooper, as any one may let off a gun, or push with a fword; but to do it with a good air, is to be learned only in a camp. This practice, I fuppofe, was introduced among our regiments, and tolerated by the chaplains, that it might familiarize them to the most shocking circumftances: for, after they have intrepidly damned one another's eyes, limbs, blood, bodies, fouls, and even their own, they muft certainly be fearless of any harm that can happen to them.

Drinking is another abfolute requifite in the character of a good officer; and in this our militia are not at all deficient. Indeed they are kept to fuch conftant duty in this exercife, that they cannot fail of being very expert at it. No veterans in the

rvice can charge their glaffes in better order, or difcharge them more regularly at the word of command. By the way, this is the only duty that is expected from the chaplain; and he is commonly as ready to perform it as any of the corps.

Intrigue is as effential to a foldier as his regimentals; you will therefore ima

gine the militia do not fall fhort of the regulars in this military accomplishment. Every woman is regarded by them as lawful plunder; fome they befiege by fecret fap and undermining, and fome they take by affault. It has been frequently a practice in the most civilized armies, whenever they ftorm a town, not only to cut the throats of the men, but to ravish the women; and it is from this example, I fuppofe, that our officers think it an indifpenfable branch of their duty to debauch the wives and fifters of the inhabitants wherever they are quartered; or perhaps, confidering the great lofs of men we have fuftained by fea and land, they are defirous of filling up the chafm, and providing recruits for a future war.

The laft circumstance which I shall mention, as highly neceflary in an officer, is, the fpirit of gaming. The militia-officer was undoubtedly poffeffed of this fpirit in fome degree before, and would back his own horfes on the turf, or his own cocks in a main, or bye-battle; but he never thought of rifking his whole patrimony on a fingle card, or the turn of a die. Some of them have fuffered more by a peaceful fummer's campain, than if their eftates had been over-run, pillaged, and laid waste by the invader: and what does it fignify, whether the timber is cut down and deftroyed by the enemy, or fold to fatisfy a debt of honour to a sharper?

But the rain is over, and I am glad of it-as I was growing ferious, contrary to my ufual humour. I have ordered my horfe out-and have fome miles to ride fo no more at present from

Your conftant correfpondent, &c.
B. Thornton.

§ 137. On going to Bath, Tunbridge, and other Watering-places, in the Summer.

Nunc eft bibendum. Sadlers-Wells. It has long been a doubt with me, whether his majefty lofes more fubjects in the year by water or by fpirituous liquors: I mean, I cannot determine within myself, whether Bath, Tunbridge, Scarborough, &c. &c. &c. do lefs harm to the conftitutions of my fellow-creatures, than brandy, gin, or even British fpirits. I own, nothing gives me more furprife in the practice of the learned in Warwick-lane, than their almot unanimoufly concurring in ducking their patients in the fea, or drenching them with falt, fteel, or fulphureous

water, be their diftemper what it may. If a man has a dropfy, they will not hesitate to give gallons of this element, as they do not fcruple to give the ftrongeft cordials fometimes in the moft violent fever.

Though the faculty feem to agree, one and all, that every patient fhould vifit fome watering-place or other in the fummer, I do not find they are fettled in their opinions, what particular waters fuit particular diforders. I have visited them all for my amufement; and upon converfing with the invalids in each place, I have found, to my great furprife, in Bath, Tunbridge, Bristol, and Brighthelmftone, many perfons drinking the waters for the gout, bilious cholics, or weak nerves, as if the fame effects could be produced by fteel, falt, and fulphur; nay, a gentleman of my acquaintance was fent by different phyficians to different places, though they were all agreed about the nature of his cafe. I verily believe, if a man would confult every phyfician in the kingdom, he would vifit every fink in the whole ifland; for there is not an hole or bottom, in any county, that has not its falutary fpring; and every fpring has its phyfician to prove, in a long pamphlet of hard words, that thofe waters are fuperior to any other, and that any patient, in any diforder whatever, may be fure of relief. In fhort, we feem to have a fecond deluge, not by the wickedness, but the folly of the people, and every one is taking as much pains to perifh in it as Noah and his family did to escape it.

The prefent thirst after this element, which the phyficians have created, makes it neceffary for them to fend their patients to fome waters in vogue; but the choice being left to the doctor, he is determined in it by various circumftances: fometimes the patient is fent where the best advice and affiftance may be had, in cafe the distemper fhould increase; fometimes where the phyLician of the place is a coufin or a pupil of the phyfician in town; fometimes where the doctor has an eftate in the neighbourhood; and I have more than once known a patient fent to a place, for no other reason, but because the doctor was born within four miles of it.

I cannot cafily fuggeft to myfelf any reafon, why phyficians in London are fond of fending their patients to waters at the greateft diftance, whilft the country practitioners generally recommend the fprings in their neighbourhood. I cannot come into the notion that prevails among many perfons,

that

fence. If you, or any of your readers, can advise me what to do in this cafe, it will be a lafling obligation conferred on

Your very humble fervant
TIMOTHY MILDMAN.
B. Thornton.

$139. A circumftantial Detail of every
Particular that paffed at the Coronation.
[In a Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend
in the Country.]

to admire her at a diftance; an ogle or a leer are all the advances I dare make; if I move but a finger it puts her all in a sweat; and, like the fenfitive plant, fhe would shrink and die away at a touch. During our long courtship I never offered to falute her but once; and then she made fuch a wriggling with her body, fuch a ftruggling with her arms, and fuch a toffing and twirling of her head to and fro, that, instead of touching her lips, I was nearly in danger of carrying off the tip of her nofe. I even dared at another time to take her round the waift; but fhe bounced away from me, and fcreamed out as if I had actually been going to commit a rape upon her. I alfo once plucked up courage fufficient to attempt fqueezing her by the hand, but the refifted my attack by fo close a clench of her fift, that my grafp was prefented with nothing but fharppointed knuckles, and a long thumb-nail; and I was directly after faluted with a violent ftroke on my jaw-bone. If I walk out with her, I use all my endeavours to keep close at her fide; but the whifks away from me as though I had fome catching diftemper about me: if there are but three of us, The eludes my defign by skipping fometimes on one fide and fometimes on t'other as I approach her; but when there are more of us in company, fhe takes care to be fheltered from me by placing herself the very midmost of the rank. If we ride in a coach together, I am not only debarred from fitting on the fame fide, but I must be seated on the furthermoft corner of the feat oppofite to her, that our knees may not meet. We are as much at diftance from one another at dinner, as if we were really man and wife, whom cuftom has directed to be kept afunder the whole length of the table; and when we drink tea, the would fooner run the risk of having the contents fpilt over her, than take the cup and faucer from me any nearer than at both our arms length. If I mention a fyllable that in the least borders upon love, the immediately reddens at it as much as if I had let drop a loose or indelicate expreffion; and when I defire to have a little private converfation with her, fhe wonders at my impudence, to think that the could truft herself with a man alone. In fhort, Sir, I begin to defpair of ever coming to close contact with her: but what is ftill more provoking, though fhe keeps me at fo refpectful a distance, the tamely permits a ftrapping fellow of the guards to pat her on the cheek, play with her hand, and even approach her lips, and that too in my pre

Dear Sir,

Though I regret leaving you fo foon, efpecially as the weather has fince proved fo fine, that it makes me long to be with you in the country, yet I honestly confefs, that I am heartily glad I came to town as I did. As I have seen it, I declare I would not have miffed the fight upon any confideration. The friendship of Mr. Rolles, who procured me a pass-ticket, as they call it, enabled me to be present both in the Hall and the Abbey; and as to the proceffion out of doors, I had a fine view of it from a one-pair of ftairs room, which your neighbour, Sir Edward, had hired, at the fmall price of one hundred guineas, on purpose to oblige his acquaintance. I wish you had been with me; but as you have been deprived of a fight, which probably very few that were prefent will ever fee again, I will endeavour to defcribe it to you as minutely as I can, while the circumstances are fresh in my memory, though my description must fall very fhort of the reality. First, then, conceive to yourself the fronts of the houses, in all the ftreets that could command the least point of view, lined with fcaffolding, like fo many galleries or boxes raised one above another to the very roofs. Thefe were covered with carpets and cloths of different colours, which prefented a pleafing variety to the eye; and if you confider the brilliant appearance of the fpectators who were seated in them (many being richly dreffed) you will eafily imagine that this was no indifferent part of the fhow. The mob underneath made a pretty contrast to the rest of the company. Add to this, that though we had nothing but wet and cloudy weather for fome time before, the day cleared up, and the fun fhone aufpiciously, as it were in compliment to the grand feftival. The platform, on account of the uncertainty of the weather, had a shelving roof, which was covered with a kind of fail-cloth; but near the place where I was, an honeft Jack Tar climbed up to the top and ftripped off the covering, 3 I

which